Hands on with the top ten tech cars of NAIAS 2013

Fiat 500e -- electric efficiency
Fiat's popular Cinquecento has been reimagined as a small, but perfectly formed electric car. The brief here was to keep it simple, so the fast charging module is built in allowing owners to fully recharge in just four hours. This will take you around 80 miles. The retro-futuristic dash offers you a seven-inch display that integrates TomTom navigation and battery reserve power to tell you when you need to think about charging. The 500e will arrive in California and the rest of the world later this year.

Jim Hill

It's technology, not performance or style that the car brands
are competing on at this year's North American International Auto
Show (NAIAS). Across the board, the vehicles of 2013 are being
seen as mobile devices rather than just status symbols. With
smartphones bringing LTE connectivity and thousands of ingenious
apps into every car, drivers are now constantly plugged into an
information network that enables incredibly sophisticated driver
assistance systems. Wired.co.uk tried out ten of the latest
high-tech vehicles in Detroit.

1. Toyota Prius C
The Prius C, debuted at NAIAS, is the latest version of Toyota's
non-plugin hybrid vehicle that claims to achieve 53 mpg -- even more miles
per gallon than its popular predecessor. It's achieved by shaving
245 kilograms of weight. It is packed with even more electronics
though, including a 6.1-inch touch screen for the infotainment
system.

2. Acura NSX battery efficiency
Acura unveiled an ultra-aerodynamic hybrid sports car at the
Detroit show that demonstrates how you can squeeze maximum
performance from a heavy battery pack. We spoke to its chief designer, Jon Ikeda.
"Accommodating the battery pack and electric drive train, as well
as an engine is the biggest challenge for a designer". He
explained. So we have used materials like carbon fibre to reduce
the weight with a very low and aerodynamic shape to also reduce
drag. If we can develop more efficient batteries before we go into
production, they can be accommodated in the NSX.

3. Subaru Forrester -- EyeSight steering
assist
Built into the rear view mirror of the latest Forrester (and
Subaru's other 2013 models) is a pair of cameras that fire infrared
beams at the car in front. Detecting the reflected IR waves allows
the on-board computer to judge speed and distance and offer visual
and audible warnings. Ignore these and it will gently apply the
brake for you.

4. Fiat 500e -- electric efficiency
Fiat's popular Cinquecento has been reimagined as a small, but
perfectly formed electric car. The brief here was to keep it
simple, so the fast charging module is built in allowing owners to
fully recharge in just four hours. This will take you around 80
miles. The retro-futuristic dash offers you a seven-inch display
that integrates TomTom navigation and battery reserve power to tell
you when you need to think about charging. The 500e will arrive in
California and the rest of the world later this year.

5. Audi A3 -- Audi Connect services
Audis cars are rapidly becoming fully autonomous supercomputers on
wheels. Check out the self-driving A7 from CES 2013 for the proof. But the Audi
Connect uses Bluetooth and the LTE connectivity to your phone to
provide invaluable services right now. Picturebook Navigation, for
example, can navigate you to a destination from a photo imported
via SD card or through a MyAudi account, provided the photo is GPS
stamped. Google Maps and Google Earth show you a satellite view
that can be zoomed to an elevation of 30 meters to help you
recognise where you are.

6. Tesla -- 17-inch touchscreen dashboardTesla has a
clear lead when it comes to premium electric vehicles, but the
company has also grasped the importance of touch and gesture
control emerging from the electronics industry. It's dashboard is
dominated by a 17-inch touchscreen display, that makes the mean
4-inch displays that you tend to get in cars look out of date. It
gives you vivid infographics on your battery performance that
can interpreted at a single glance and makes map reading much
easier too.

7. Ford Fusion Energy -- Plug in hybrid
In addition to AppLink, Ford showed a barrage of 25 cars at NAIAS
including the Fusion Hybrid Energy. Unlike the regular Fusion
Hybrid (Mondeo in the UK), it it's a 'plug in', which means you can
charge the slightly larger battery directly from the mains and run
in pure EV mode rather than relying on the petrol engine to help
out the electric motor.

8. Mercedes -- F-Cell car
As well as offering the fastest electric car (see the AMG SLS EV
in the March edition of Wired magazine) Mercedes also
readied its F-Cell car for the Detroit show. With water as the fuel
and oxygen the only tailpipe emission, this is one clean car, but
don't expect to see these on the road anytime soon. Storing
unstable hydrogen makes the infrastructure required a little
complicated.

9. Toyota Rav4 -- long-range hybrid SUV
The new hybrid Rav4 proves that even SUVs can drive with zero
emissions. In fact, Toyota says they're large size provides plenty
of options for locating the battery back. In this case, it's housed
in a steel unit separated from the chassis to protect the cells
from damage in case of a crash. In many ways it's the best
performing hybrid vehicle on the road this year with a fuel
consumption of 103 mpg and a top speed of 100 mph.

10. Maserati Quattroporte -- B&W sound
system
The revered marque exhibited the 2013 Quattroporte fitted with a
similarly high-end sound system. British Bowers & Wilkins was
tasked with kitting out the big sedans with speakers that could
deliver superior sound quality through drive units mounted all
around the car's interior. We had a demo and confirm that the
stereo sounds even more powerful than the growling V8 engine.